Dashcam footage showed the moment strong winds caused power lines to fall onto an intersection packed with cars in Arizona on Friday.
AccuWeather shared the footage on its social media account on Twitter on Thursday. (Related: Prominent storm chaser Reed Timmer slams AccuWeather, says he'll never work in media again)
The video begins with a car driving through an intersection with traffic lights. A utility pole is then seen crashing into the intersection. As the pole falls, several others fall, taking their wires with them. Sparks can be seen flying briefly from the pole as it hits the ground. The video also shows the wires hitting the traffic light, causing the metal supporting the light to shake.
Dashcam footage captured the moment high winds toppled a row of utility poles at a packed intersection in Tucson, Arizona last week. pic.twitter.com/lGXnZlPPIk
— AccuWeather (@accuweather) July 11, 2024
At least several vehicles were entangled in power lines, KVOA reported. reportTwo people were reportedly injured when a power pole broke, and residents in Arizona were left without power after the incident, the media reported.
Tucson resident Luis Mireles said that after the power in his home suddenly went out, he looked outside and saw “at least five utility poles on the ground,” the media reported.
“I was taking a nap and when I woke up, the TV was off, the fan was off, and I thought, wow, that's interesting,” Ivy Maynard, another local resident, told KVOA about the outage.
Fallen power lines have claimed lives in other incidents: A Louisiana man died in May 2024 after being electrocuted while trying to move a downed live power line, authorities said. according to To WAFB. A Maryland power company worker was electrocuted while working on power lines on Tuesday, according to police. ABC 7 News report.
There have also been fatalities from accidentally touching live power lines. A lumberjack in Georgia was electrocuted in May 2024 when his chainsaw got caught on a power line, police said. “He had a chainsaw and it got caught on the wire and that was it,” local resident Debbie Carter told Atlanta News First. She reportedly said the sight of the man “hanging there” was “very, very unpleasant.”
